Fergie fires a few warning shots to Peterborough United fans and players

​Posh have eight League One matches to play and a seven-point gap to the automatic promotion places to bridge, but four of those games are against the teams currently in the relegation zone, starting with rock bottom Carlisle United at the Weston Homes Stadium on Good Friday (3pm).

Posh also have struggling Fleetwo od Town and Port Vale to play at home and they travel to third-bottom Cheltenham Town on the final Tuesday of the regular season.

Posh do have two games in hand on second-placed Derby County so the chance of a top two finish is real if Ferguson’s men can get back on a winning run after their unfortunate defeat at home to League One leaders Portsmouth last time out.

"We’re in the mix, but there will be twists and turns to come for sure,” Ferguson said.

"But it would be wrong to write off the chances of the teams at the bottom. League positions count for very little at this time of the season as Northampton showed against Derby last weekend.

"We still have to play a lot of teams with plenty to play for and that makes them dangerous.

"All we can do is make sure we deliver a level of performance good enough to beat them.

"Carlisle’s results haven’t been good lately, but they have started playing better and they have started scoring goals. They scored two against Barnsley and two against Stevenage in recent games and the front two, Danny Butterworth and Luke Armstrong, are a handful.

"They will come to us with nothing to lose so we must make sure we are at it.”

Posh midfielder Hector Kyprianou is suspended from the Carlisle game, but will be available for the Easter Monday trip to his old club Leyton Orient.